Outrage at new Alzheimer treatment to cost over $20,000 for patients

The American Drug Administration Agency has approved a new treatment for Alzheimer’s disease, which will cost the majority of patients an estimated $26,500 per year.

Most seniors who are eligible for Leqembi will have to pay out of pocket because the national insurance program "Medicare" has limited coverage for people participating in studies approved by the federal government, as reported by CNBC.

The Japanese pharmaceutical company Eisai led the "Leqembi" drug’s development together with US Biogen, which has received accelerated approval by the administration after the treatment appeared to modestly slow the progression of Alzheimer’s disease in clinical trial participants with mild cognitive impairment. 

Medicare recipients in the US have a median income of about $30,000 per year, according to Tricia Neuman, the executive director of the Kaiser Family Foundation’s Medicare policy program.

“Without Medicare coverage, this drug is pretty much unaffordable. Even with Medicare coverage, beneficiaries would still be responsible for 20% coinsurance, and that’s not a trivial amount”, she said.

The publication cites the Alzheimer's Association as putting the number of people ages 65 and older suffering from mild cognitive impairment due to Alzheimer’s disease at about 5 million.

The American Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services restricted coverage back in April 2022 for a whole class of experimental Alzheimer’s drugs brought to market using the FDA’s accelerated pathway, arguing that this step was taken due to safety and efficacy concerns as drugs like Aduhelm and Leqembi can cause brain swelling and bleeding.

An investigation led by US lawmakers in the House concluded that the FDA approval process for Aduhelm, another Alzheimer treatment created by the same companies, was “rife with irregularities”, despite opposition from its independent expert panel, which found that the available data did not demonstrate clear clinical benefit.